Hello everyone!Today I have the wonderful Orlagh Collins, author of No Filter, on the blog today with a Q&A with blogger Amy from yaundermyskin. No Filter is Orlagh's first book and it is just amazing. A book I am highly recommending to everyone because it is wonderful.

Also! If you would like to win a copy-head over to my twitter where you can win a signed copy kindly from Orlagh!​

BORN IN DUBLIN, ORLAGH LEFT IRELAND AFTER UNIVERSITY TO BREAK INTO THE FILM INDUSTRY IN LONDON, WORKING ON PRODUCTIONS SUCH AS CALENDAR GIRLS AND ALI G BEFORE TAKING OVER AS HEAD OF PHYSICAL PRODUCTION AT PATHÉ FILMS, WHERE SHE OVERSAW NUMEROUS AWARD WINNING FILMS INCLUDING THE QUEEN. ORLAGH CO-PRODUCED THE BIFA-WINNING DOCUMENTARY JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN AND THE FORTHCOMING MARY SHELLEY (2018) STARRING ELLE FANNING, DOUGLAS BOOTH AND BEL POWLEY.ORLAGH LIVES IN SOMERSET WITH HER HUSBAND, THEIR TWO CHILDREN AND MILDRED THEIR DOG. LIKES STRONG COFFEE, 80’S TEEN MOVIES AND SWEARS LIKE A SAILOR.NO FILTER IS HER FIRST NOVEL.

1. If you could plan the perfect summer, what would you do and where would you go?I quite fancy isolation. I’ve always been one of those people who could stare silently out a window or simply watch people pass by all day long. I adore my family; they’re so much fun, but the constant feeding, cleaning, laundering and entertaining is relentless. For me a perfect (and let’s face it, fantasy) summer would involve being deliciously alone. I’d be somewhere near the sea with a beautiful view and I’d walk and read endless books, with the odd meal eaten directly from the cereal box.

2. Do you have any writing or editing rituals?When I’m in writing mode, I’m quite disciplined. I’ll drop the children to school, walk the dog, load up the coffee machine and go for it. I’d love to say I have an editing ritual but honestly, it mostly involves me reading and re-reading the same passages over and over, despairing that it’s not good enough and generally making very little progress. My most productive days are when I don’t look back.

3. What are your favourite recent YA books?It’s so hard to choose. I’ve just finished TROUBLEMAKERS by Catherine Barter and that was a real breath of fresh air. I fell in love with Lena’s voice on the first page and found it hard to put down. WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon was delicious and choc full of feels. I loved the insight into Indian culture and this sweet, romantic comedy was so charming I forgave any small contrivances towards the end. COUNTLESS by Karen Gregory asks the profound question ‘what does love mean?’ It’s such an authentic, sensitively written story and it smashed my heart to tiny pieces before hope ultimately triumphed. I came late to RADIO SILENCE by Alice Oseman but WOW! Adorable characters. Having written a book about how crappy social media can be, I really enjoyed Osman’s opposing take. In her book the online world provides genuine community and connection.

​ I spent most of my time reading ORANGEBOY by Patrice Laurence screaming at Marlon, NO!!!!! I also desperately wanted to hug him. Man, that gorgeous boy made BAD choices, but what so brilliant about this book is how Laurence allows us to understand why Marlon did what he did. INDIGO DONUT has similarly racy plot, high stakes, punchy dialogue. I enjoyed this too.

4. What books did you love as a child?Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree went deep. It was one of the first books I read alone and it introduced the possibility of disappearing to lovely places inside my head. I still cry at Charlotte’s Web. We had a copy of Eloise, which an aunt had brought home from America. I long to call room service and announce ‘charge it, please’ with the same fabulous abandon. The Velveteen Rabbit’s tender tale of the truthful Skin Horse telling young-buck Rabbit about the pain and beauty that comes with ‘becoming real’ is gorgeously poignant and timeless. Alice in Wonderland is for me the original and the best ‘portal to another world’ story. We had a large, illustrated copy of Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales in our house. I was obsessed with it. The pictures were so twisted and disturbing (like a lot of the text!) but I couldn’t stop looking at them. I would pore over the dark images, which were rendered even more malevolent by the accompanying stores. Although they haunted me, I’d love to see those images again. I’m thrilled Louise O’Neill is writing a feminist reimagining of The Little Mermaid and can’t wait to see how she shakes that one up. Are you there, God, it’s me Margaret? I read this when I was around ten and the just the right side of slightly-confused for it to feel unforgettably relevant. Margaret talked endlessly of her ‘loafers’ and I remember being desperate to know what they might look like. No Google in them days.​

This is the story of THAT SUMMER ...the one when everything changes. Emerald has grown up in a privileged world - the beloved daughter of a wealthy family, friends with all the right people, social media addict. But Emerald's family has secrets - and when Emerald finds her mum unconscious on the bathroom floor, no one can pretend any more. Now she's being packed off to stay with her grandma in Ireland while her mum recuperates and her dad just works and works and works. Grandma's big, lonely house is set back from the beach, and there's no phone signal or wifi. It's going to be a long summer ...Until she meets Liam. When you're falling in love, it's hard to tell someone everything. Even if you've got nothing to hide any more. And when secrets and lies are all you're used to, how do you deal with real love - brave and true - with no filter?